To chance, or not to chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z College of William and Mary
1

<p>I generally try to avoid chancing, but I'm afraid that with April looming so near (and yet so far!) impatience has taken hold of me. I know that my stats aren't quite at par with CC standards, but I suppose that it's worth a try anyway.</p>

<p>Out-of-state. I applied to both W&M independently and to the St. Andrews program.</p>

<p>Intended major: International Relations</p>

<p>ACT: 30 normal, 31 superscored. 33-Reading 32-Math 33-English 26-Science</p>

<p>Grades: 3.94 UW, 4.40 W</p>

<p>Rank: Last semester I was 31/289. On the mid-year report I went up to 24.</p>

<p>School: Public / magnet. Routinely ranks in Newsweek's top 100.</p>

<p>Course rigor: IB Diploma candidate. My HLs are: European History, English, and Biology. My language (which I have taken for 4 years) is Latin.</p>

<p>APs: US History-5 English Language-5 Bio-3 (ouch). This year I am also taking AP Calc and Comparative Government classes.</p>

<p>Recs: I think that my history teacher (a great teacher in my best subject) wrote me a good one. My "college advisor" has a record of writing amazing recs, but I don't think that she was very impressed with me; I know that she liked my writing and affinity for Shakespeare.</p>

<p>Essays: I am a good writer in general, but I'm regretting my Common App essay - it had a lot of personality and I think that it was mildly funny, but too risky of a topic and it didn't sound intelligent. I really liked my W&M supplement - it was a compilation of captioned pictures which I felt captured my world. My St. Andrews essay was good, but I left out some info about specific aspects that I liked, such as the largest library on Iran in the West.</p>

<p>ECs: Lots of theater, NHS, speech & debate, model UN, lots of politics, internship with my city's Democratic Party, Chairman of the Political Development Committee on my city's youth council, vice president of Interfaith Club my freshman year.</p>

<p>Awards: My school doesn't give awards. However, I have been selected as a semifinalist for a State Dept-affiliated trip to Tajikistan over the summer.</p>

<p>Strong points: GPA, ECs, supplement.
Weak points: Common App essay, tests, class rank, lack of overt leadership.</p>

2

<p>You can’t improve your odds now. Best to just wait like the rest of us. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>As coalminerson suggested, we tend not to chance students who have already applied because there’s nothing you can do to improve your “chances” at this point. Just realize a few things: 1) we do not superscore your ACT as the ACT doesn’t do that itself, 2) we are a selective institution admitting less than one-third of all applicants and only about 27% of out-of-state applicants and 3) IR was the most competitive of the St Andrews programs. We say this not to make anyone more anxious but to make sure our applicants have the right expectations and so that they understand that we have to deny many wonderful students which is a reflection of our pool not any over wrongdoing on their part.</p>

<p>We will release decisions via email by the first week of April so you need not wait much longer.</p>

<p>For more on any applicant’s chances, check out our Admit It! Blog ([W&M</a> Blogs Chance Me](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/]W&M”>http://blogs.wm.edu/2010/12/14/chance-me/))</p>